Method for computer tomography voxel-based finite element analysis and validation with digital image correlation...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Mechanical Engineering
• Computational Mechanics

Background:

• Analyzing heterogeneous materials is vital in aerospace, composites, geology, and biomechanics.
• Existing methods often depend on costly commercial software.
• A need exists for accessible, cost-effective computational tools.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present an open-source framework for computed tomography (CT) scan-based finite element (FE) analysis of heterogeneous materials.
• To demonstrate the integration of mesh generation with spatially varying properties and boundary conditions.
• To validate FE results using digital image correlation (DIC) measurements.

Main Methods:

• Developed a workflow utilizing open-source software for CT scan-based FE analysis.
• Implemented mesh generation incorporating spatially varying material properties and boundary conditions.
• Validated the finite element analysis results against experimental data from a digital image correlation system.

Main Results:

• Successfully generated meshes for heterogeneous materials with complex property distributions.
• Achieved good agreement between computed tomography (CT) scan-based finite element (FE) analysis predictions and digital image correlation (DIC) measurements.
• Demonstrated the feasibility of an open-source approach for material mechanical behavior analysis.

Conclusions:

• The proposed open-source framework provides an effective and affordable method for analyzing heterogeneous materials.
• This approach enhances accessibility for researchers and engineers in various fields.
• The validated framework supports further development in materials science and engineering applications.